WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈
Chapter 28: Fortress of Black Sorcery # 3
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Sir Gottwald said he would guide us to the secret vault.
By the way, Sir Gottwald was a man with a slim face and long hair tied back.
But we could not take him lightly. He was level 16.
“Sir Knight, how much Ether did you invest to reach level 16? At least a hundred million, right?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Hehe, I was wondering what I would have to do to earn that much Ether.”
“Ah, I see. So that’s why you want to enter the lieutenant general’s vault.”
Sir Gottwald narrowed his eyes and looked us over.
“You have your eyes on the lieutenant general’s treasures too.”
“I am interested in knowledge, not treasure.”
Hermit snorted.
I was not after treasure either. I was only running an errand for Jermain.
Hammer, who was walking behind us, added a word.
“I’m going for money. Running a party comes with plenty of expenses.”
Anyway.
After hearing Sir Gottwald, I suddenly got greedy for money too.
If things went well in that vault, could I not make a fortune?
But the deeper we went down the stairs, the stranger the atmosphere became.
We had already gone at least ten floors underground.
And there was still no end.
“Loyalty!”
“All clear on watch!”
The guards we occasionally passed made me even more uneasy.
Normally, guards protecting a vault would watch outside for intruders.
But every guard we met stood with their swords pointed underground, not toward the surface.
‘They’re not trying to stop intruders from outside. They’re trying to stop something from escaping from within.’
Hermit glanced around.
“I had a feeling. The Bottomless Abyss, a deep pit said to be near Lavadon...”
“That’s right. This Black Fortress was built above that Abyss.”
Sir Gottwald stopped.
The stairs had ended.
In their place was an incredibly deep pit.
“This Black Fortress was not built to stop intruders. It exists to protect the Empire from this Abyss. And you want to step into a place like this so carelessly?”
How deep was it?
Just in case, I took my all-purpose tool, 「Fragment of a Stone Man」, from my bundle and threw it into the pit.
“...”
No matter how hard I listened, I could not hear it hit the bottom.
Was that even possible?
“Wait!”
Hermit pulled a book from her cone-shaped hat.
# # #
「Long ago, a shepherd found a deep pit while searching for a lost sheep.
Ten days later, he returned, repeating only, ‘We have to seal the hole,’ while sealing his own eyes, ears, and nose.
Afterward, the villagers tried to fill the pit by throwing in corpses and garbage. The pit came to be called the Bottomless Abyss, and the village was named Lavadon, meaning Pit Village.」
「Title: Folk Tales Near the Wall. Author: Estelle」
Master Estelle had written a lot of books too.
Hermit closed the book and finished her explanation.
“It has been nearly three hundred years since this pit was discovered, but they still haven’t uncovered what secrets and mysteries lie within it.”
“So, Hermit, what did that shepherd experience in the darkness?”
“How would I know?”
No!
What did he see?
I wanted to know!
Then Hammer tied a rope around their waist and let out a breath.
“Lieutenant General Raiden uses a place like this as a personal vault? I suppose that’s what it takes to be called one of the Empire’s Four Stars!”
“Hammer, I have a question. What exactly are the Empire’s Four Stars?”
“Huh? Yore, you’re an Imperial citizen, and you don’t even know the Empire’s Four Stars?”
“Hehe, please keep the story short.”
“It refers to the four heroes who defeated Dragon King Degaros. That heroic tale is why I wanted to become an explorer!”
What was Dragon King Degaros now?
I wanted to ask, but it sounded like another long story, so I held back.
I tied my own rope around my waist.
Then we slowly descended into the Abyss.
Ssssss.
Soon, it felt as though ants were crawling into my nose, mouth, and ears.
I knew this feeling well.
“Fuck, this is the night!”
It reminded me of when I had been left alone at Michanic University.
“Damn it! Why is there night here when we’re not even beyond the Wall?”
“Ugh. I’ll take out an Ether Torch!”
Whoosh.
Hermit took a torch from her cone-shaped hat.
Had she not said one of those was worth one million Ether?
We had already burned through one million Ether.
Hammer steeled themself.
“Yore, your wish has come true. Where there is night, there is Ether.”
“Ooh!”
My motivation suddenly soared.
We descended for a while longer before finding a ledge on the opposite wall.
Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw that it looked like the entrance to a cave. There were many footprints too.
“I’ll jump over there.”
Hyaah!
I leaped with all my strength and grabbed the ledge.
After climbing up, I took out a rope I had prepared beforehand, tied it to a shuriken, and threw it toward the cliff where my party members hung.
Whirl! Thud!
“Got it. It’s stuck firmly, so come over slowly.”
“Ha, having a Thief really does make exploring easier!”
My party members came across hand over hand on the rope I had set up.
They looked like ants hanging from a thread.
“Hammer, I think there’s a cave here. There don’t seem to be any traps either.”
I looked around with eyes accustomed to the darkness and a nose skilled at dealing with traps.
Before us stretched a horizontal cave that smelled oddly sour.
“So, Yore, where should we go?”
The cave was full of branching paths with holes all over the place.
There were so many holes that it was disgusting.
“This path doesn’t show up on my map, so you have to lead us.”
An Ether Torch, an expensive item, was burning.
The faster we decided, the better.
“That wide hole over there.”
“Your reason?”
My reason?
I had nothing to say in response to Hammer’s question.
I had just picked one.
But if I said that, I would end up like the boy who cried wolf.
I was finally building trust with my party members.
It would not be good to show them this side of me now.
“Look here. Only this hole has moss growing around it. None of the others do. If moss grows there, it means the environment is suitable for living creatures. So this must be the right one.”
I had just picked it at random.
But Hammer nodded as though convinced, and Hermit and Felix did not object.
We entered the moss-covered cave hole.
Then something felt strange.
“Am I the only one who thinks this looks like a spiderweb?”
“Come on, it’s as thick as rope.”
If this was really a spiderweb, then there had to be one fucking huge spider around here.
Clatter.
There were many bones scattered everywhere too.
Were they leftovers from what that huge spider had eaten?
“Gyaaah!”
Hermit screamed and fell.
There had been a pit at her feet that she had failed to notice.
The problem was that Hermit yanked the spiderweb hard as she fell.
Sway.
That vibration traveled far into the deep darkness.
“Everyone, draw your weapons and prepare for battle!”
Like they had been waiting for it, veteran Hammer gave the signal.
Felix drew his sword and lightly swung it, cutting the web around Hermit.
“Seriously, causing trouble right away.”
“Wh-what did I...”
“This isn’t the time to argue! It’s coming!”
Hammer pulled out the huge hammer and shouted.
Hammer’s eyes had not adjusted to the darkness, so they could not see it.
But I could see clearly.
Click, click, click.
Ssssss.
Spiders surged toward us like a churning wave of darkness.
No, could those things even be called spiders?
“...Human...?”
Their forms resembled humans, but spider legs sprouted wildly from their sides, heads, and legs. They looked like humans and spiders had been forcibly fused together.
The spiders’ red eyes had sprouted all over their bodies too. They were too disgusting for words!
“S-save me... It hurts... My whole body hurts...”
“Ugh, they really are humans!”
“Yore! Once they become like that, there’s no way to save them! Letting them die peacefully is the merciful thing to do!”
Hammer’s words snapped me back to my senses.
“Fuck!”
I cursed and threw a shuriken.
Thwack!
The shuriken struck a human in the head.
“Uuuh...”
Kieeek!
The human body trembled.
Then a massive spider burst from inside, tearing through the skin.
These bastards were spiders using human bodies as homes, like hermit crabs!
“Fuck, that’s disgusting!”
A spider as large as my body leaped at me.
It moved so fast that it was already on my shoulder!
Kieeek!
“Get lost, asshole!”
I drove my shuriken into the spider’s belly.
Clang!
But it did not sink in deeply. It felt like I had hit a hard shell.
Crunch!
The spider bit my shoulder.
“Argh!”
The pain doubled because of the Double-Edged Sword engraving.
It hurt badly enough to bring tears to my eyes.
Kieeek!
But it suddenly screamed, thrashed around, and fell to the ground.
The poison in my blood from Snake’s Blood entered its body and ate it from the inside.
Fuck, praise Sabranik!
The next time we met, I would pick up a bunch of stones and give them to Sabranik!
“All you bug bastards are dead!”
I immediately smeared blood on my shuriken.
Then I threw it around, and every spider it touched screamed and collapsed.
Kieeek!
Kiek!
“These spider bastards sure love dying!”
Did this world have a pest-control company like CESCO?
If I got hired there right now, I would become filthy rich!
“《Angrat’s Flame Wheel》!”
Then Hermit raised her staff.
A round, spinning-firework-like wheel formed at the tip of her staff.
Then it rolled forward powerfully, giving off intense heat.
Whoosh.
Fwoosh.
“Kieeek!”
“Argh!”
Humans, spiders, and spiderwebs burned in an instant.
I felt this every time, but magic really was broken.
「+500 Ether」
「Parasitic Spider Shell: Extremely hard. So hard that it is difficult to process for use.」
Five hundred Ether per spider?
Fuck! These guys were a gold mine!
I happily collected the Ether.
Clatter.
Then something from the pile of spider byproducts caught in my hand.
“What is this?”
It was a stone statue that looked like a small Buddha.
The strange thing was that it had eight arms.
Then my head tingled.
【─That is the Eight-Armed Great Mother Idol─.】
【─Blessed one, give it to me─.】
【─Then I will give you Serpent’s Legs─.】
Sabranik?
Was it possible to communicate because night had settled here too?
‘More importantly, this is the Eight-Armed Great Mother Idol...?’
‘The item Jermain asked me to find showed up right away...!’
I was lucky!
The moment I put the idol into my Black Bundle, my body froze.
“Huh...?”
I saw enormous legs forcing their way through the cramped cave.
The body was so large it nearly touched the ceiling, large enough to fill my entire vision.
Yet, horrifyingly, I could not hear a single footstep.
“Hehe, Ether.”
“Hey, Felix, doesn’t the roasted spider smell good?”
“Hammer, don’t say strange things.”
Hermit, Felix, and even Hammer had not noticed it approaching.
It seemed only my Black Eyes could see it.
I shouted urgently.
“Boss Monster!”
Author’s Note
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